Ourselves Alone

“Without the conscious will and the conscious action of the Proletariat there can be no socialism” - Rosa Luxemburg, November 1918, in Die Rote Fahne

There is an Eastern saying that a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step and for the workers that first step is socialist knowledge. Another ancient sage said do not put your trust in princes and today the Socialist Party extol our fellow workers to trust in yourself and your class, no matter what the “militant" self-appointed cadres may say to the contrary. We say study socialism for yourselves. Having acquired the requisite socialist understanding, the working class can emancipate themselves rather than rely on the befuddled humanitarian liberals and those leftist political clowns who claim the mantle of leaders over the people. Workers can be so easily fooled if they do not comprehend their class position in society because in  not understanding they fall for the lures and bait set to trap the unwary. People genuinely seek a way out of the mess of capitalism but possess little idea of the solution. Political opportunists set themselves up as “leaders” to mis-lead. This happens everywhere, everyday,  by placing faith in people whom they think know better than themselves and in doing so, workers hand over control of their political power to others. Nor is it a question of sincerity or good intentions. As Engels remarked “Honest opportunism is perhaps the most dangerous of all.”

 Trusting in political or labour leaders invariably leads to treachery and betrayal. Instead, the Socialist Party proposes class understanding, socialist knowledge and intelligent organisation with which the working class can win the class war we are all engaged in. Behind the veil of deceit and hypocrisy false messiahs know the game is up once workers have clear insight. So the intellectuals and academics ensure the language of socialism becomes so jargonised as to be incomprehensible to ordinary workers. They label the failures of capitalism as socialist experiments, and describe reformist projects of capitalism as socialistic. How many workers have grown weary and cynical with any kind of politics because they realised that “under socialism” they are badly off as ever before. Don’t be fooled by the window-dressing or duped by the description on the label.

The Socialist Party insists on working class understanding as the means to attain socialism. We cannot liberate you but we can provide the material for your education so that together we can work towards a better world. It is up to you, our fellow workers, to avail yourself of it. When the working class become conscious of the necessity to abolish the capitalist mode of production and establish a system of production and distribution where everything will be commonly owned and democratically controlled people will live as human beings and not exist for the profit of others. The world is ours. We presently live in a society where there is no community. We have only two opposing factions - exploiters and the exploited. The Socialist Party puts this proposition to our fellow workers: In the long run every worker will find him or herself faced with the inevitable conclusion that the day-to-day struggle can only be successful as far as the conditions of capitalism permit and behind this daily struggle lies the necessity for a change in social relations, with the abolition of the capitalist mode of production and its cardinal feature, the wages system.

Above all, realise how much depends upon you. A vote even for the Socialist Party is of no value unless it expresses a socialist consciousness. Understanding must precede action. Go to the polling station even if it is only to write “socialism” across the ballot paper, for if you cannot vote now for what you want, it is folly to vote for what you do not want. If the Socialist Party hopes to achieve socialism solely by our propaganda the outlook is not very bright. But we see workers discovering from their own experience that capitalism cannot solve its recurring crises or repeated armed conflicts. The Socialist Party task is simply to shorten the learning time.

  The more socialist knowledge you acquire the more you will know the hows and whys. You will hold the key to the door to leading to peace and plenty but it is a door that can only be opened when the majority of your fellow workers are also in possession of the same key.

“When the International was formed we expressly formulated the battle-cry: the emancipation of the working class must be achieved by the working class itself. We cannot therefore co-operate with people who say that the workers are too uneducated to emancipate themselves and must first be freed from above” - Marx and Engels , circular letter, 1879